Ah, ’tis what we like. Finally a break from all the crap they play around here, nobody here even knows who dilla is, can you belive that? So I have set myself a goal while am here, doctrinate someone (anyone) to good music. Dunno where to start though, this is hell. But on the brighter side, having shitty sounds around you all day makes the good sounds sound even better when I’m alone in my room listening to the only good music existing on tape, vinyl, cd or digital for miles and miles (some good jazz and rock headz here though, but no good hip hop, Alabama doesn’t read skd…).
‘WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip’ is the rebirth of the ruff jaylib, lootpack madlib we all hold dear. A nice variation from the little brazil trip he had earlier this year. Rapping without quasing it up aswell, we love your Barry White voice Otis, don’t hide it.

Oh, did I mention from BBE records’ The Beat Generation? The little thing you recognize from ‘Welcome to Detroit’ and ‘PeteStrumentals’, this should be considered a quality stamp, and it is in this case aswell. The album is portrayed as a radio show, would be cool if radio was as awesome as this. But sadly, as alot of Madlib’s albums, it has flaws. ‘Gamble on ya Boy’ is one of the weakest songs I’ve heard in a while, the beat is ok, the rapping is terrible. Done with the flaws, this is a solid album, thanks to Talib Kweli, Guilty Simpson, Roc C, Oh No, MED and the Konducta himself. A ruff, vinyl feeling album, absolutely worth a buy. Pre-order here, ships the 29th.

Favorite songs: Blow the horns on ‘em, The Ox (805), The Plan, Parklight, What It Do.

The ‘Turn it up’ stamp looks cool, im’a start putting that on ruff albums.

How are you Magnus, your current self must deplete from the redneck essence down there.

I’m doing ok actually, alot of interesting people… and bugs, huge bugs… I dunno, I’m not going to start blogging about my problems here, though they are hilarious problems. Some childish people here..!

I have a weakness among others; writing about jazz albums. It’s hard, because theyre all fairly original (Saku seems to do it pretty well, note to self: delegate writing about jazz to Saku in the future). But some still appeal more to me than others and this is the first guitar jazz album i have honestly enjoyed. Soothing as can be, Jim Hall is to the guitar as Miles Davis is to the trumpet, but the addition of piano and sax etc. (this is a sextet) makes it not blues. *Writer’s block*. Uhm, oh yea, Jim Hall was born in 1930 in Buffalo, NY. Concierto was recorded in New Jersey at the Van Gelder studios, april 16 and 23 1975. It is probably his most recognized work. The cover is bomb and the jazz is the coolest you can get without going fusion. Thanks Wilhelm for this recommendation, didn’t know you were a jazz head.

Favorite pieces: I really don’t believe in enjoying jazz albums in any other form than their whole, but I especially liked ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’.

Yes, there are jazz people in Alabama. No, there aren’t jazz kids in Alabama, what a stupid question. People in my school wouldn’t know good music if it rang their doorbell at three AM, shot you in the foot and cockslapped you across the face while you were down, you’re like ‘Hey what the hell did you do that for?!’ and theyre like ‘WHO CAAAARES?!’ and youre like ‘I care, you shot me in the foot, bastard’. And he’s like ‘Jesus, I’m sorry, we cool?’. And you’re like ‘Fuck no, you know how much this hurt?’ Good music are such douchebags.
I lost my train of write…

Get an iPhone, they rock balls, with SKD they rock balls to walls.

WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip review comin’

As Finnish music swiftly takes over SofaKing Diligent why don’t we take some time out to appreciate a really good hip hop album. More importantly, one you will probably not have heard of. Kenn Starr (I think that’s his real name) comes from Virginia, USA, and after his debut album Starr Status was released he recieved critical acclaim from several large hip hop magazines, including The Source. JIVE magazine even said “There shouldn’t be any argument over Kenn Starr’s status as one of the best MCs in the game.” That’s pretty cool.

If I were to compare Starr Status to an album you may already know, I would most probably use The College Dropout. Now don’t shoot me down yet, I am aware that The College Dropout is considered one of the best hip hop albums of all time, but Starr Status has a very similar feel/vibe to it. The soulful beats, some INCREDIBLY well produced beats, the witty lyrics, the inflated ego, and the fact its his debut album. Let’s just hope that Ken Starr doesn’t go on to use auto-tuner EVER!. 

If you’re worried about not knowing anyone on the album never fear, yes there’s Kev Brown, Wayna, Supastition, Brockington, Median, M-Phazes, Oddisee, Sean Born, Chronkite and Asheru, now no offense to them, but I’ve never heard of any of them before, and I know what you’re thinking right now, he hasn’t reassured me about me not knowing people, however, there’s a feature by an amazingly talented person called Talib Kweli. He put the effort in to deliver a dope verse on the last track “If”, and you should have the courtesy to get this album (legally would be nice) and listen to a future great before he tries to appeal to myspace people.

Favourite tracks: Mr Nice Guy, Middle Fingaz, Back At It Again, If.

please don’t tl;dr
Two finnish albums in a row? It happened.

This time I’m telling you about Don Johnson Big Band (Like I promsed in my ‘Let’s talk about Herbie Hancock‘). Despite it’s name DJBB has nothing to do with Miami Vice and consists of only four regular members and a couple of visitors during live performances. And his nicely leads us to the moment when I finally started liking them.

I was a wee lad (12 is young, alright?) and I still played football (Soccer) and we were in a tournament. We won ticets to a football game Brazil vs Portugal (there was some amateur adult tournament also in Finland - they weren’t the world cup players) and at the stadium a song started to play. It was One MC, one delay, from their 2003 album breaking daylight. I had never heard of it before but my friends were all very excited. I thought it was alright. Not a huge step towards me liking them, but now I had heard of them and I had an opinion if I liked them or not.

Then a couple years forward. I had just heard that Kanye West was coming to Finland. Oh my GOD! Me and my friend rushed to get the tickets. Friday, 21st of July, 2006 became the day that changed my life. When I say Herbie Hancock changed my taste in music, I mean Herbie Hancock and Pori Jazz 2006 changed my taste in music. At 2pm the gates open and we’re let in to the Kirjurinluoto Arena where “Kanye and buncha other guy’s will be playing.” Carla Bley Big Band is on first. Okay, when’s Kanye coming on? Then Raul Midon. Okay, when’s kanye coming on? Then Don Johnson big band. So far it had been a rainy day but the vocalist, Tommy Lindgren, promised that they’ll make the clouds go away with their music. And goshdarnit, that’s exactly what they did.

There’s six men on stage plus Emma Salokoski from Quintessence (how convenient - I’m going to write about them later) giving us all they can. Clock is about 7:30 pm right now and the sun is slowly starting to set. Tommy says “This has been a great evening… but… we all know you didn’t come here to see us…” and then they perform One MC, one delay and leave the stage. I would say that DJBB is the wors warm-up act you can get, because they make anyone performing after them look like shit. Kanye’s performace was good but far away from being memorable, where DJBB’s crazy rhythms and smooth melodies were just stuck in my head. I bought this particular album from the Pori Jazz giftshop and listened to it the entire long ride home. It always makes me a little bit teary when reminice the moments of that cool summer night. Truly the best day of my life.

When compared to DJBB’s previous albums this one is more solid and easier to listen to. The previous two were more angry, dark and culturally aware, pure hip hop albums with a dash of jazz, where Don Johnson Big Band is still culturally aware and angry but at the same time it’s beatifully melodic and it feels like every note is played with a huge passion. And the vocals. Oh my god. I’m not really that interested in lyrics. The vocalist can sing about anything from toothpaste to weather, as long as it doesn’t sound completely retarded. In Big Band the topics vary from personal love songs to religion to graffiti, and for the first time ever I actually pay attention to the lyrics and the way Tommy Lindgren performs them is just perfect. I have no idea how you define a ‘good flow‘ but I would imagine that this could be described as good flow.

As you can see; everything about this album makes me happy. It could make you happy too (Click the cover). And please, go see them live if you’re able to. You won’t regret it.

“Absolutely sublime from start to finish and I will jam forks into my eyes if I ever use those words to describe anything else ever again”

-Ben Croshaw

Favorite tracks: Cocoa Cacao, Private Intentions, Jack, Island Girl, Last Things.